The present invention relates to footwear designed to have the versatility to be used in diverse dance styles, in particular in jazz dancing and character dancing.
Jazz dancing is a flexible free form of dancing that requires soft, pliable manipulation of the feet and toes including the dancer pointing the foot for aesthetic effect. Ballet, while it is a rigidly stylized dance form, also involves soft, pliable manipulation of the foot for aesthetic effect.
Character dancing or folk dancing, in contrast to jazz dancing and ballet, involves energetic steps, including brushing, gliding, jumping and turning as well as stomping, kicking, scuffing, slamming and clicking. One can imagine such steps as part of energetic movements in typical well known Broadway musical plays such as Chorus Line or West Side Story. Tap dancing, which involves tapping steps by dance shoes containing taps, may be thought of as a kind of American folk dancing.
As a result of these differences in dance styles, there are corresponding differences in the footwear needed by dancers that are dancing in these styles. For example, the dance shoes needed for jazz dancing have soft soles and soft shoe uppers in order to provide sufficient flexibility to the dancer's foot. Ballet dance slippers, worn by male or female dancers to go three quarters on pointe (called “three quarter releve”), are soft as well while ballet point dance shoes are worn by female dancers to go fully on pointe (called “on toe”) and have a stiff shoe support box at the front of the shoe to allow the dancer to go on pointe but the remainder of the shoe is very soft and flexible. There are also jazz dancing sneakers that have reinforced toe sections that permit the dancer to stand on pointe.
In contrast to the footwear used by jazz dancers, the existing dance shoes used for character dancing have hard leather soles, hard leather heels and firm, strong shoe uppers so that the dance shoe can provide the support and strength needed to perform energetic dance steps used in character dancing like stomping, kicking, scuffing, slamming and clicking. Dance shoes used by character dancers are designed to give support to the dancer; however they do not provide flexibility. Also, they do not allow the dancer to comfortably stand on pointe or even three quarters on pointe and in fact if a dancer wearing such shoes did stand on pointe or three quarters on pointe that dancer would probably be placing a great strain on the dancer's foot. The result would be awkward and possibly harmful over the long run. It would also be awkward and difficult for a dancer wearing dance shoes used in character dancing to dance jazz dancing steps, which requires pliable manipulation of the feet and toes.
The problem inherent is a desire to perform in various dance styles in a single set of shoes has become exacerbated in recent years by the growing sophistication of Broadway sets. More sophisticated sets mean heavier sets, and heavier sets mean thicker stage floors to support them, and thicker stage floors mean less resilient stage floors which are less forgiving to dancers. This has resulted in an increase in the incidence of bruised feet from using shoes which were not exactly adapted to the job. It is known that certain character dance shoes have been used by dancers performing specifically in musical theater and dance concerts for both character dancing and jazz dancing, although such shoes are really not suitable for both styles.
Over the past thirty years, the American Musical has evolved from singular styled presentations, e.g. “The King and I”, “Hello Dolly” and South Pacific”, often set in one time period and locked into that form of costume and shoes, into diverse spectaculars incorporating all styles and periods in one show, namely ballet, jazz, character and tap. Some examples are “Fosse”, “Contact” and Jerome Robbins' Broadway.
The sets have become high-tech, the costumes made of newer and stronger fabrics, the lights are computerized, and the stages have become reinforced for flying chandeliers, helicopters and barricades. However, up to now, the dance shoes have not evolved along with everything else.
The design of the present invention developed as a result of the demand put on the dancer to dance various styles not only in the same show, but also in the same number. The design of the present invention was necessitated by the requirement to be able to perform jumps, leaps, brushes, and glides, to point the feet and straighten the leg to show ballet lines, and then kick, turn or stomp the very next count of music in a fashionable, esthetic high heel, which is pleasing to the line.
A significant advance in this field was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,251 to LaDuca (the '251 patent). A combination jazz dancing and character/tap dancing shoe was disclosed which combined the flexibility of a jazz dancing shoe and the support strength of a shoe used for character/tap dancing. This was achieved by use of a semi-flexible arch made of rubber of specified material properties extending between a hard leather heel and hard rubber fore sole or front sole in combination with an upper including flexible inserts on the sides above the arch.
This shoe combines the support necessary to perform energetic character dancing steps including stomping, kicking, scuffing, slamming and clicking, while maintaining sufficient flexibility to allow the dancer to go either three-quarters en pointe (“flexing”) or fully en pointe (“pointing”). Wearable by either male or female dancers the shoe has the overall appearance of a sophisticated street shoe with a heel of between 1″ and 1½″ in height. This would not normally be described as a “high heel” shoe, and hence there is a need for a high-heeled dance shoe which shared some of the same advantages.
Flat or lower heeled shoes keep the dancer grounded and balanced. However, this look does not coincide with the new musical theatre/chorus girl look of high heels of 2 to 4 inches in height. With the choreography becoming more demanding, dancers still need a strong supportive shoe found in character shoes and at the same time must perform supple and lyrical dance steps associated with pliable shoes for jazz ballet.
Danseuses in particular might wish to perform in a shoe which had the appearance of a feminine high-heel shoe, and particular one which would allow them to perform flexing and pointing and other movements encountered in jazz dancing. They would also like to have such a shoe which provided the support required to perform at least some character dancing steps.
The requirement of the high-heeled look and the fact of the dance shoe being high-heeled makes it that much harder to achieve the combination of a strong supportive shoe for character dancing and one that is pliable enough to perform supple and lyrical dance steps associated with pliable shoes for jazz ballet.
Prior art high-heel dancing shoes have a full length metal shank which is completely inflexible, and thus would be unusable for movements including flexing or pointing, or other supple and pliable motions of the foot, although the shank does provide support. On the other hand, in order to increase the flexibility of high-heel dance shoes the design of the '251 patent cannot simply be extended without modification to high-heels, because higher heel shoes require additional structural support of a shank to prevent “bowing”, which is the unwelcome severe bending of the middle part of the shoe, sometimes to the point of collapse. The use of a shank militates against maintaining the flexibility for a jazz dancing shoe. Therefore there is a need for a women's high heel dancing shoe which is structurally stable enough for performing character dancing steps, yet flexible enough for pointing and flexing; seemingly contradictory structural requirements for which there is no obvious solution. In particular there is a need for such a shoe that one can use without taps to perform such steps as brushing, gliding, jumping and turning.
In addition, the '251 patent is for a dance shoe that has closed sides. Many high-heeled dance shoes have open sides, meaning the shoe upper of the shoe is in two parts, the toe box and the heel cup (later referred to herein as the “upper toe box” and the “upper heel cup”) with a space separating them. Consequently, the '251 patent cannot easily be adapted to a high-heeled shoe that is open sided.